THE MOMENT AT WHICH I REALISED I WAS IN TROUBLE - a love letter to Rose
Nice to meet you, Rose! Now run for your life!
I put off watching Doctor Who in 2005 because I was busy at military school, thank-you-very-much, and I was worried it might become a fandom. In 2006, with New Earth set to air for the first time in a week, I picked up DVD with Rose, The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead on it from the library and thought "ehhh... it can't hurt. Besides, I'm don't even have the energy to care about this show". One week later, I was (nearly) all caught up and sitting down to watch this skinny new bloke prance around a hospital full of zombies and cats. And the moment I realised I WAS DOOMED came about ten minutes into the episode. There was no way back. OH WELL. :D
Nine months later (and that's not a good way to start a sentence) I was vindicated in my EXCELLENT TASTE when I sat down with my sister, who had seen series two but only for David Tennant, to introduce her to Nine and she made an audible squeeing noise at the same line that had hooked me.
As far as I'm concerned, Rose is both perfectly Doctor Who (RTD's Who, anyway). The following graph helps illustrate why I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
(The minor lack of overlap can be put down to RTD not hiring me as his beta, btw.)
The thing is about Rose is that the plot is not great. And the special effects are badly done (TO APPEASE THE CLASSIC WHO FANS, NO DOUBT). But FAMILIES ARE ANNOYING AND EASY TO TAKE FOR GRANTED BUT IMPORTANT NONETHELESS and MICKEY IS EATEN BY A WHEELIE BIN and THE DOCTOR IS ~MYSTERIOUS~ and NO MATTER HOW MYSTERIOUS HE IS, ROSE BRINGS HIM DOWN TO EARTH and ROSE KEEPS IT TOGETHER SAVES THE WORLD WHERE NO ONE ELSE CAN and THE DOCTOR AND ROSE HAVE FUN and THERE IS SOME ANGST and SOMETIMES GOOD PEOPLE DIE FOR NO REASON (poor Clive...) and THE DOCTOR NEEDS ROSE MORE THAN SHE NEEDS HIM but ROSE'S LIFE IS BETTER FOR HAVING HIM IN IT ALL THE SAME.
OK, so Mickey being eaten sounds a bit specific, but the crack and the silly plots is a huge part of RTD's Who. Everything about this episode shows us something that's to come. When the Doctor is trying to steal plastic!Mickey's head, Rose is the one who gets the fire alarm going and gets people out. Everyone remembers the Bad Wolf for epic win, but here Rose saves the world in such an ordinary way, just like she does in many other episodes (she let go of the clamp to fix the lever in Doomsday - she didn't need any skill or super-human powers to do it, but she still risked her life). We also get the first hint of Nine's Time War emo, which will obviously last him a while. Everything I love about this show is right there in Rose, so I can't help but love the episode.